St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-01
GUARDED LIKE GOLD.
The Invention Which Is to Knock Com
position Out.
HOW THE MACHINE WORKS
A Royalty Of Ten Cents Per Thousand
to be Charged, With $500
Security.

The door of room in the Stillman
block is as carefully guarded as though
the treasures of GOlcOnda were con-
tanned within. They are not, but the
door cOnceals a patent, about which
there is more mystery than ever lowered
around the creation of mans genius
since the days of the Kelley motor.
The patent is a machine that is destined,
if its owners can be believed, to do
away with type setting. and
make out of the cOmpositOr
modern OthellO-his occupation
gone. The new machine is a patent of
A. S. Capehart, of this city, and works
on the general principle of a type
writer. The present principle of COM
position is to set type in form and
then from an impression in matriX
cast the form from which the printing
is done. The main principle of the
Capehart patent is to stamp the impress
son of the individual type directly upon
the matrix,. or upon a.. strip, of
material which take its place.
1t it claimed this machine
will work five times more rapidly than
the type-Setting machines, besides doing
away with the distribution. The own
ers have such faith in its future that
company has been formed to manufact-
ure them. The articles were given in
yesterdays GLOBE, with the names OF
the incOrpOrators and the capital stock
of 81 100000. G. l.. Redfield, a practical
engineer, describes the machine as fol-
lows:
lin the center of the machine is
type OF die place which carries ninety
oil
characters. This die plate stands OH
short legs and slides on a steel plate,
which has a small hole in its center,
through which the dies are driven to the
matriX below. The die plate is attached
to thin lever, on the outer end of
which is attached hard rubber button
like that on telegraphic instrument.
The lever is pivOted on slide moving
in and out from the center of the ma
chine. BY means of this swinging and
sliding motion person taking hold of
the button at the outer end may
throw any part of the die plate
over the hole in the steel plate below.
At the outer end of the lever just be-
low the button is metallic point which
just slides over hard rubber plate with
holes arranged to exactly correspond
with the arrangement of the die in the
ulo pldlC. by UIlllSIuS tllc DutlOu ONOl
and pressing it down into one of these
holes the corresponding die is brought
directly over the hole in the steel plate.
The act of pressing the key down makes
an electrical connection which throws
the matriX the proper distance for the
letter to be printed and at the same time
throws down a hammer upon the die,
driving it through the hole into the mat
rix. The operators attention is confined
strictly to pressing the key into the
proper hole and throwing the spaces.
When the end of the line is reached
touch upon another key returns the
matrix to the beginning of the line,
when a touch upon third key moves
the matriX for either an ordinary or
Headed line as desired"
The matter of justification IS one
which has usually given considerable
, trouble, but the inventors have several
methods to do the work, one of which is
by setting the type, or rather making
the matriX from typewriter copy"
: 1t is upon details of this kind that work
is now being done.
{ "A bonanza? Well, should say SOL"
exclaimed c. Wright Dawson, one of
the owners, yesterday. He thinks no
newspaper establishment will be with
out them, once it is perfected. 1t is the
present intention simply to rent out the
machines, charging a royalty of 10 cents
per LOCO ems of composition, besides
guarantee of $500 with every machine,
to be refunded if the machine is re-
turned